Keir Starmer is treating the House of Lords with contempt
We have different approaches to tidying up, my wife and I. It bothers her very much that the house we…
The grandstanding against the Hay Festival is short-sighted
When the country’s largest literary festival parts ways with its main sponsor, it is not usually a cause for rejoicing among writers,…
Sunak’s speech was embarrassingly bad
Let’s be fair. It wasn’t Rishi Sunak’s fault it was raining. But it was, a bit, his fault that as…
In defence of Jonathan Yeo
If the basic job of a work of art is to be interesting, as I think it is, then Jonathan…
Gorgeous and deeply absorbing: Manor Lords reviewed
Grade: A ‘God games’, as they used to be called, have a storied history. SimCity, Civilisation and the excellently sadistic…
Farewell Nadhim Zahawi, you won’t be missed
Nadhim Zahawi’s latest resignation letter was one of the all-time classics of the genre: unctuous, preening and pretentious even by…
The Elphicke affair has made Starmer look incompetent and unprincipled
The defection of Natalie Elphicke to Labour was, no doubt about it, a political coup de theatre. What wasn’t immediately clear, but is becoming clearer now the curtain…
Suella Braverman has made herself look silly
Did Suella Braverman run her latest op-ed by No. 10 for approval? That was the question asked at the end of…
The parable of Blackpool’s potholes
I read the news today, oh boy. Four thousand holes in Blackpool, Lancashire. Well, in fact, not quite as many…
Tony Blair is a post-democratic product
Why was it that when I read a big interview with Tony Blair over the weekend – the ostensible premise…
Entirely pointless and extremely pleasant: House Flipper 2 reviewed
Grade: B+ Most video games challenge the player’s problem-solving skills, reaction time or hand-eye co-ordination. But a handful of them…
To Salman Rushdie, a dream before his attempted murder ‘felt like a premonition’
Though premonitions are not things he believes in, Rushdie notes the many spooky coincidences surrounding the attack – which he describes in gripping, terrifying detail
Long live the litter lout snitches!
Most of us are, I think, temperamentally opposed to the idea of a society in which we are surveilled 24/7.…
There’s no Roald Dahl without his cruelty
Roald Dahl Goes Woke: Part Two in what promises to be a very long and funny and ignominious series. Not…
Why bullies win
Remember when Friends Reunited was a thing? Twenty-something years ago, before Facebook even existed, this primaeval social networking site connecting…
Princess Kate, photographs, and the great thirst for significance
When Photogate, or Kategate, or whatever we end up calling it, first became news, I remember taking one look at…
All hail the abolition of the ‘non-doms’
One of the agreeable surprises in the Spring Budget was Jeremy Hunt’s late conversion to the idea of abolishing ‘non-dom’…
It’s time for vicars and wedding photographers to make peace
This week’s unexpected public smackdown is… vicars versus wedding photographers. What a time to be alive! The latter have hoisted…
What if digital learning is a catastrophe?
There’s a lot of talk in the papers about the importance of banning smartphones from schools. Quite right too. The…
What did David Cameron expect when he lectured the Americans?
Lord Cameron, bless him, is back striding the world stage. He wrote an article last week in Washington’s inside-beltway website…
The feuding tearing apart the Royal Society of Literature
You’d think, wouldn’t you, that the Royal Society of Literature (founded 1820) might be one of those institutions that chugs…
Why the Tory party is breaking apart
I don’t, I freely admit, remember all that much about my chemistry lessons at school. Covalent bonding delighted me not,…
